Is Authenticity Authentic?

“Be Authentic” is one of the biggest pieces of advice that we get in today’s world.

Sometimes I think about what it actually means to be authentic? What is actually authentic??

Whenever I try creating something like drawing a portrait or painting scenery, writing a poem or writing this blog post, I always think that I need to be authentic... But is there anything called authentic? Me, as a person, I can write whatever I am feeling like writing. like this blog post, I am writing without any idea what I am going to write but still, there are some things that are already in my mind, when I think about authenticity, so doesn’t that mean that my preconceived notion about authenticity is not authentic.?

There are two kinds of things in this world, like opposites, that are black and white, right and wrong, right or left. these are called Binary Opposition.. These things are always together but as opposites... It is funny that we need to put two opposite things together to make the opposite of each other…

Same like this every work has two kinds of values. I prefer to call these intrinsic values and extrinsic values... Extrinsic value has those works or things, that produce something, or there is an end result from the work and it has a goal, to begin with... But the intrinsic value is the work which has the value in doing the work itself... But the problem is that it is not defined which work has which values, it depends on the person doing the work or thinking about it... Any work has both values in it…

For example, praying is a common habit across the globe. If we take praying as an act or work then we can use both values in it. Like people pray for something to god and they want something from God or angel or what they believe in, it can be the fulfilment of a certain wish or to get rid of the hell or punishment. This makes the act of praying have extrinsic value. But people also pray to gods for the sake of praying only, that is they do the same thing as it is, they don’t have any demand they just do it, it makes the act have intrinsic value…

But is there anything called true intrinsic value... Like our parents teach us to pray every day, bcz they want us to believe in their religion, or their god or they want us to have a good habit or maybe they want us to be strong in a difficult situation, it varies from person to person, but they definitely want something in return and we continue it... Doesn’t it make extrinsic in act?? Even if we don’t want anything, somebody else wanting something from our actions can also be extrinsic…

This is the same for authenticity... We can be authentic about what we do, but we don't do anything from ourselves only, bcz we are made of our upbringing, our society, the things we consume, the things we read, see and believe in... It impacts whatever we do on a daily basis... It will definitely impact our everyday life and our everyday work. So when we think we are working from authenticity, we are reproducing what we have consumed. Doesn’t it mean the authenticity is not authentic?

I feel, there is nothing called authentic in this world anymore. Maybe there was something called authentic at the beginning of time, although we don’t know for sure, but nothing is authentic anymore…

It makes me remember the dialogue from fight club “everything is a copy of a copy of a copy”…

Does it mean we live in a matrix?

Maybe… I don’t know… At the end of the day, I am also trying to be Authentic…😜😜😜